Stuffed Up

On display today at the Academy of Science - a human male!! This room is actually always empty when I visit, but today, there was a scientist drying and preparing bird specimens for display. Although he's working on a hummingbird, notice the cameras pointed down on his workspace. The Academy installed these really thin projection screens on the glass door, so you can watch what he's doing both from afar and close-up. It was pretty cool watching how he went about grooming and stuffing the bird, but seeing the specimens on the table with cotton balls for eyes is a bit creepy.

Bug Me Not

Bugs are gross, but these made for great pictures. Madagascar hissing cockroaches on the left, and a bazillion lady bugs on the right. Thanks to my buddy for lending me his 50mm f/1.8.

Academy of Sciences

Ever since the new opening last September, I've been dying to check out the new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. I live just half a mile away, but it's been so crowded during the weekends that I haven't had a chance to pay a visit yet. With Hanie and Jason visiting this weekend, "working from home" provided the perfect opportunity to check out the museum. To start off the day, Hanie and I picked up Jason at Johann's place and ate brunch at Zazie's before heading to the Academy of Sciences. Even though we were there for roughly 3 hours, we barely got through half of the museum, so I decided to apply my admission towards a membership, which entitles me to free admission plus a guest for one year. Anyone interested in going? How can you say no to a planetarium, aquarium, natural history museum, and a botanical garden, all in one building? This picture didn't come out as well as I hoped, but you can pretty much guess what we were going for. So much fun to be had!